Prof Abiodun Ogunyemi, the National President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has asked the federal government to stop playing a game of manipulation and deception in his latest revelation on why the union is yet to call off the strike.
The ASUU President who was a guest on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily programme on Monday November 9, accused the FG of failing to show commitment in resolving the impasse.
He said;
“What we need is a commitment; there is nothing like transition and what we are saying, in essence, is that government should just go ahead and pay what government has withheld – the salaries of our members; people have not been paid for eight or nine months on account of not registering on IPPIS.
“Government should stop this arm-twisting and manipulation, going back to universities to ask them to go and enroll in IPPIS so that they will go and migrate to UTAS; people see it as a game of deception and we cannot trust them.”
Ogunyemi who further stated that it is not the place of the union to tell the government where to get the fund to address its challenges, also highlighted some of the vital roles the union has played in ensuring public universities do not become a history in the country.
The ASUU President stressed that if not for their effort, the fate of public universities in Nigeria would have been just like that of the primary and secondary schools.
Ogunyemi added;
“Each time people talk about this problem has been there for long, they don’t also appreciate the solution we have brought to the system to keep the system going.
“But for ASUU’s intervention, we would no longer have public universities today. Do we still have public primary schools? Do we still have public secondary schools? That is what will happen to public universities.”
